Longhand-writing guide



R. A. STROHL LONGHAND-WRITING GUIDE June 2, 1970 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 27, 1968 T Q H= A Qf H Z INVENTOR. RAYMOND A. STROHL BY MA HONEY ,M/LLER a RAMBO 1 ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,514,874 LONGHAND-WRITING GUIDE Raymond A. Strohl, 230 E. Wheeling St., Lancaster, Ohio 43130 Filed Feb. 27, 1968, Ser. No. 709,589 Int. Cl. G09b 11/04 U.S. CI. 35-37 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A writing guide for use with sheets of various types of paper, such as translucent unruled sheets of stationery, as a guide for obtaining proper margins, straight lines across the sheet, lateral positioning and vertical alignment of indentations, etc. It preferably consists of a platen or fiat board providing a supporting surface on which the sheet is positioned and which is provided with a border or frame for overlapping'the edges of the sheet on its two sides and top and bottom, the overlap being such as to provide the desired margins on the sheet when the writing is confined to the exposed upper face of the sheet as well as to grip and hold the sheet firmly but releasably. The platen is provided with horizontal and vertical guide lines and other indicia which show through the sheet to help the writer keep straight lines and vertical alignment of paragraph and other indentations as well as to locate other areas. Also, the inner edge of the frame or border may be provided with notches for locating page numbers or the like and which are located in a selected manner relative to the grid provided on the platen by the horizontal and vertical lines.

In the accompanying drawings, I have illustrated a preferred embodiment of my guide device and in these drawmgs:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the device.

FIG. 2 is a face view of the guide device indicating how a sheet can be inserted therein.

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a horizontal sectional view taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 2'.

FIG. 5 is a face view of the device with a sheet positioned thereon having writing in the form of a letter produced with the aid of the guide.

FIG. 6 is a back view of the device showing a sheetstorage pocket.

The entire device is preferably made of plastic or some other suitable material or combustion of materials. It consists mainly of a platen or backing 10- which provides a fiat, hard upper surface or face and a surrounding peripheral border or frame 11 which extends inwardly over the face of the platen. Certain of the outer edges of the border or frame are attached to the outer corresponding edges of the platen, either integral or otherwise, and their inner edges are all free therefrom. In the example shown, the platen is of rectangular form, but it may be of other forms, and the surrounding peripheral border or frame is of corresponding rectangular outline to provide an inner exposed area of the platen of rectangular form. This exposed area of the platen face is provided with a grid representation and other indicia as will be explained later.

As indicated in FIG. 2, the border frame 11 is attached to the platen at one of its outer side edges 12 and bottom edge 13 and is free at its opposed side edge 14 and top edge 15. This makes it possible to readily insert the sheet S, from the upper left-hand corner, over the face of the platen 10 with areas adjacent all its peripheral edges beneath the corresponding portions of the border frame as will be apparent from an inspection of FIGS. 2 and 5. The frame will releasably grip the edges of the sheet and firmly hold it in place on the platen, and in writing there is a tendency for the sheet to work to the right and downwardly toward the respective attached edges.

The sheets S are ordinarily not ruled and are ordinarily translucent and, therefore, the grid and other indicia on the upper surface or face of the platen can be observed therethrough. This grid consists of a series of horizontally extending, uniformly vertically spaced lines 16 which extend completely across the platen from border edge to border edge and a series of vertically extending, uniformly horizontally spaced vertical lines 17 which extend the vertical extent of the platen from border edge to border edge. Obviously, the lines 16 and 17 are disposed at right angles relatively. The lines may be printed on the platen or formed in the surface thereof.

Certain of the boxes or spaces provided by the intersecting grid lines 16 and 17 may be shaded, stippled, colored, or darkened to show through the sheet material to indicate certain areas for dates, addresses, Salutations, etc., of letters or other areas for other purposes, such areas being indicated at 18 and 19 in the drawings.

In addition, the edges of the border frame 11 may be provided with inwardly opening notches to provide for writing the page number of the sheet at a selected location or locations. One of said notches is indicated at 20 at the upper right-hand inner corner of the border frame and another is indicated at 21 at the mid-section of the lower side of the frame.

Means may be provided for storing a plurality of the sheets behind the platen 10. This means may take the form of a pocket 25 formed behind or beneath the platen by a parallel Wall 26 suitably spaced therefrom. This wall may be fastened to the platen at the three sides 27, 28 and 29, leaving an unfastened side to provide the slot 30 through which the sheets may be inserted into or withdrawn from the pocket. To facilitate insertion and withdrawal, the wall 26 may be provided with an opening 31, shown centrally located, by means of which the outermost sheet may be engaged with the thumb or finger to start it outwardly through the slot 30. Other arrangements of apertures, edge notches, etc. may be provided for this purpose.

The use of this device will be apparent from the different figures of the drawings and the advantages thereof may be summarized as follows:

(1) Platen surface 10 on which stationary, sheet 8 or other materials rest is hard and smooth making an excellent surface on which writing, printing, painting, etc. can be produced no matter what the nature of the support surface is on which the device itself is placed, including ones lap.

(2) Surface 10 on which stationery, sheet S, and other materials rest has horizontal and vertical lines 16 and 17 on or in it to guide the person using the device and to help him judge vertical and horizontal spacings, measurements, distances, etc.

(3) Notch 21 in middle of lower portion of this new device is provided so page numbers, etc. can be written, printed, painted, etc. in exact middle of bottom portion of material slid into this new device. Also, a notch 20 in upper right corner of the device is provided so page numbers, etc. can be properly positioned on that part of material slid into this new device.

(4) The border frame portion 11 of this new device automatically determines the proper sizes of the top, bottom, left side, and right side margins for stationery, paper, and other materials of the size this new device holds. This new device and the portions of it which determine sizes of margins can be produced in countless sizes and shapes for very small to very large stationery, paper, and other materials and for very small to very large margins.

(5) This new device provides for ease of insertion and removal of sheets since the frame 11 is free at its upper and left edges and any tendency of the sheet to mov will be toward the attached edges.

(6) This new device has a storage area 25 for storing stationery, envelopes, etc., until they are needed.

(7) This new device has a hole or opening 31 or similar aperture in it so a persons thumb or finger can slide paper, stationery, envelopes, etc. out of the storage area 25 when they are needed.

(8) If a person desired to continue working past the margins automatically determined by the frame 11 of this new device, the person need only slide the stationery, etc. up in the device in order to continue down on the paper, etc. and the person need only slide the stationery, etc. to the left in the device in order to continue to the right on the paper, etc.

(9) The vertical lines 17 on or in the surface of the device on which stationery, etc. rest provide for the easy making of uniform indentations of paragraphs, etc. by the person using the device.

(10) When a person uses this new device the fingers of his free hand need not touch the stationery, paper, etc. since it is not necessary to hold the paper. This helps prevent dirt, perspiration, and smudges being put on the paper, etc. from the users fingers. Also, this new device would greatly aid certain handicapped people such as people with only one hand or one arm, since the sheet is firmly held on the platen by the border guide frame 11.

(11) The surface of the platen 10' on which stationery, sheet S, or other materials rest has shaded areas, or colored areas, or darkened areas 18 and 19 which show through the paper, stationery, etc. and which indicate to person using the device where to locate the various parts of the letter, etc. such as where to locate the writers address, date, address of person being written to, salutation, etc.

Having thus described my invention, what is claimed 1. A Writing guide comprising a platen to provide a working surface having opposed parallel side edges and opposed parallel upper and lower edges at right angles to the side edges, a peripheral border of similar outline to the platen having outer edges contiguous to the corresponding edges of the platen and being secured thereto at the right side edge and lower edge thereof only and being free at the top edge and left edge to permit ease of insertion of a sheet beneath the border, said border having free inner edges spaced inwardly from and parallel to the respective side, upper and lower edges of the platen and contiguous outer edges of the 'border, a grid on the said writing surface of the platen to appear through a translucent sheet positioned on the platen beneath the border comprising parallel vertical and hori- 'zontal lines disposed at right angles to each other with the vertical lines being in laterally spaced parallel rela tionship to each other and to the inner vertical edges of the border and with the horizontal lines being in vertically spaced parallel relationship to each other and to the upper and lower inner edges of the border, so that the lines of the grid intersect at right angles and provide box areas of predetermined size throughout the grid.

2. A writing guide according to claim 1 in which certain of said areas are treated to appear differently through the transluscent sheet.

3. A writing guide according to claim 1 in which one or more inwardly opening notches are provided along the free inner edges of the border.

4. A guide according to claim 1 including a wall located at the rear surface of said platen opposite the working surface thereof and being in spaced relationship to said rear surface to provide a storage pocket with an open slot along one outer edge of the platen to permit insertion of sheets into or removal from the pocket, said wall having a finger-receiving aperture within its area and extending therethrough to facilitate removal of sheets from the pocket.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 148,291 3/1874 Fowler 35-26 X 809,712 1/1906 Manuel 35-36 X 1,175,652 3/1916 Marquette 281-44 1,290,131 1/1919 Dunsdon 283-45 1,480,938 1/1924 Halladay 283-45 X 2,913,836 11/1959 Strunk.

EUGENE R. CAPO ZIO, Primary Examiner W. H. GRIEB, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 28145 

